DMW
by PrincessEnnui
Summary: Set before Crisis Core. Enkidu is a young graduate from Shin-Ra Science University, just trying to make the world a better place through science. Unfortunately, the sins of the Science Department run deep and the company seems to value progress by any means necessary. Still, it can only change if someone holds onto the morals. Even if it kills them.
1. Chapter One: Dreams

D.M.W.

A/N: I don't own Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Summary: Set before Crisis Core. "Shin-Ra is more than just an electric company, even if it's evil. For some, it represents progress. That said, it could be a little less... shady... That's why I joined up with Science Department. Enkidu, at your service."

Chapter One: Dreams

"Absolutely not," Genesis said firmly. "I refuse."

Lazard looked down at the paper before him as he sat at his desk and gave a simple nod of acknowledgment. Genesis was easy enough to read. Since Sephiroth had refused the assignment on the basis that the student would not get accurate results on her construct, Genesis would refuse on principle.

Still, it was somewhat amusing to watch Genesis try and justify his refusal. The red haired man often twisted himself into a logical pretzel to turn a simple no into a grandiose statement in the negative. It somewhat reminded Lazard of himself and he did not know whether that was good or bad.

"Pitting a SOLDIER First Class against some... student's robot is ridiculous," Genesis added after a moment. "It wouldn't last 2 seconds, let alone offer enough data to advance research on it. Besides, it's beneath dignity. Honestly, a student."

Lazard nodded again, his glasses seeming to obscure his eyes from Genesis. "Sephiroth said something similar."

Genesis' eyes sharpened ever so slightly at Lazard's words. The bait was taken.

"Still, the construct must be an impressive piece of work as the request for SOLDIER first class trials was formally made by the Science Department itself. Seems that student caught the eye of one of the higher ups."

"If they made the request than that means the machine has already faced the Security Forces.," Genesis replied.

"Decisively," Lazard added. "Actually, the machine has already faced a number of Seconds and Thirds. Unofficially, of course."

Genesis frowned. The red haired young man had considered himself up to date on SOLDIER bproceedings and could not recall hearing anything about weapon testing. "What kind of testing could this machine possibly need?"

"Hooked... Got to reel him in now," Lazard thought privately.

The blond haired man paused, scanning the mission outline for a second. His sky blue eyes met Genesis' mako infused ones. Finally, he responded, "This is a live ammunition test to be held in front of the entire Science Department, including Professor Hojo, as a part of Shin-Ra Science University's annual Demonstrated Science Event."

Lazard stopped himself from teasingly adding that Genesis would love having an audience to play to during the demo. However, the director of SOLDIER did not want to ruin his play.

Genesis gave an undignified grunt but finally acquiesced. "Fine. I'll show that student the true power of a SOLDIER First Class."

Lazard smiled to himself. Genesis was easy enough to handle, though his eagerness for recognition would probably be his downfall.

"Just remember that even though this is a demonstration, it's still live fire," Lazard cautioned.

Genesis shrugged, but said nothing as he swaggered out of the SOLDIER Director's office.

* * *

"Enki!"

The call echoed through the dark empty hallway of Shin-Ra Science University Bugenhagen Technical Research Building. Though it was not very loud, the shout still caught the young woman off guard. Enkidu turned to look at the person calling her with a small smile.

Her eyes were a clear, warm amber and almond shaped. Her bronze, heart shaped face was framed with a deep, dark brown bobbed hair. She was taller than average and most of her soft figure was hidden by a white lab coat that covered a simple black and white gradient patterned cotton dress that stopped just before her knees, accented with black, knee high boots.

"Good news! You're green on DSE!" Her professor announced suddenly.

"Yay!" She exclaimed quietly.

"You're the only one actually giving a battle demonstration and you have a SOLDIER First Class for your demonstration," He said pointedly. "This hardly needs to be said, but expectations must be met. Don't expect to be valedictorian or even salutatorian if you fail."

Enkidu's smile faded somewhat as Professor Aikuro leaned in closer. Aikuro was maybe a head taller with shaggy, raven hair with matching eyes. His overall look was dishelved from his white lab coat, to his white dress shirt, to his black dress pants. Still, he was an attractive sort.

At least Enkidu thought so.

"Keep a careful eye on Antlion," Aikuro warned sternly, "remember, there's always someone out to sabotage or steal good work for their own."

"Of course," she replied. "I didn't come this far to lose my prized work."

"Mmhmm," Aikuro responded evenly, "Let's meet later tonight. My place."

With that, the professor left and Enkidu found herself alone once again in the hallway. Meeting with Aikuro in a timely fashion might be difficult since Antlion would need to be upgraded and respecced for a first class encounter. Not to mention, the student council would need to discuss the final preparations for the Demonstrated Science Event.

Still, the excitement of showing off Antlion to the Science Department just filled her with excitement. Being recruited would be a dream come true.

"Yes!" Enkidu said as she pumped her fist. "Its finally going to happen."

"What's going to happen?"

Enkidu jumped slightly at the voice. "Fuhito! I am gonna show Antlion off at DSE."

The wispy, young man with deceptively spiky, dark brown hair and eyes, with appropriate nerd glasses, appeared behind her suddenly.

"That's old news Enkidu," Fuhito replied, slightly irritated. "It's only natural that top ranked students show at the event."

"Ah, but Antlion's going up against SOLDIER... First class."

"Now that is interesting," Fuhito conceded, "very interesting..."

"What about you Fuhito? You're showing too, right?"

"Yes," Fuhito answered coolly, "but I doubt it will have the impact of your Antlion. With my luck, I'll end up in the Urban Planning Department."

Enkidu chuckled at Fuhito's dark tone. Shin-Ra Science University had a pecking order for the Shin-Ra science departments. First was the glorious Science Department, followed distantly by Weapons Development and Urban Planning. No one wanted to be recruited into the emerging Space Department. Even the students knew that department was going nowhere fast.

"That's not true. Conserving mako is very important!" Enkidu chided playfully. "At least until an alternative can be found. Have you made any headway into your _other_ project."

Fuhito frowned at the mention of his other work. "No. At the moment, it's far too expensive to even synthesize the kind of glass I need. Shin-Ra would need to back me and I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"I see," Enkidu said sullenly, "but don't give up on it. I think your project can do a lot of good in this world."

Fuhito gave the young woman a charitable smile, though he had doubts that Shin-Ra would so easily welcome a new power source. Especially one that it couldn't patent nor wield absolute control over.

"Now, now. I don't want to see that long face," Fuhito said firmly. "Anyway, I was told to deliver a message to you from the dean, if I saw you."

"I am listening."

"He wants you and the other members of the student council to eliminate any problematic showings from the DSE. Since you got SOLDIER involved in all this, apparently Lazard, Heidegger, and Scarlet are making an appearance on top of the Science Department higher ups."

Enkidu scratched the back of her head sheepishly. Heidegger and Scarlet were prominent Shin-Ra executives always on the lookout for new R and D personnel. Lazard was an up and coming executive for the newly formed SOLDIER division.

"Thought it might be something like that," Enkidu acknowledged slowly.

Fuhito nodded and replied, "The road to Shin-Ra is paved in broken lives and broken dreams. Remember that."

Enkidu sighed and answered, "Actually, I am trying to forget that."

"Well, don't. Shin-Ra may make a lot of progress, but if you're not careful..." Fuhito warned seriously.

Enkidu remained silent.

"Well anyway, if you need me, I'll be in the lab over in Gast," Fuhito said quickly. "I'd like very much if you could stop by and view my mako efficiency tests."

Enkidu nodded, "Sure. I've got some respeccing to do though over in the Tuesti Robotics Building. If not today, then tomorrow."

* * *

"Good morning, Starshine!" sang Enkidu to the sleeping giant mech in front of her. "Gaia says hello..."

With a deep and rhythmic hum, the machine started up in the large, mostly empty room save a pair of consoles and chairs, and Enkidu's necessary work tools located by the wall, near center. The room itself was featureless with the exception of a row of four narrow windows, located close to the high ceiling.

The light that shone through hinted at dusk. Before long it's diesel engine roared to life. To Enkidu, it was the most wonderful sound in the world. As the machine started up, Enkidu logged onto the console to activate the Doodle Program, which allowed her to monitor the drone's feed and better manually coordinate the actions of Antlion and the drones.

Antlion was nearly identical to Shin-Ra's basic Sweeper model of robots. The most notable difference was it's considerably larger size, and the overall color scheme was a matte black and dark blue. It also possessed a larger, wider grill and was capable of both autonomous and piloted combat functions.

Although it was still in testing, Antlion was also capable of limited flight capability with flight mode. This was accomplished with the combination of it's lift system in the robot's under carriage and it's hidden rear thrusters. Currently, the lift-thrust system could only hover a couple of feet off the ground.

What made Antlion the superior to any Sweeper model though was it's drone system. Six small, aerial, insect inspired vehicles captured real time information on the battlefield to communicate the ever changing situation to Antlion. In essence, as the fight evolved, so did Antlion and it's tactics.

Enkidu smiled at her creation as she returned to standing in front of it. Antlion was a game changer to be sure. It was truly the culmination of twenty years of hard work. As Antlion awoke, it ran through it's initial start up tests, just like a runner stretches before a race.

Priority one was awakening the drones, which buzzed to life with ease. The second was warm up, where the energy materia infused engine would power up and signal the machine was operating at one hundred percent with a mass release of heat and black smoke. The final stage is quick testing of weapons, flights, and drone communication. All told, the process takes 120 seconds.

The sudden change in temperature signal the end of stage two.

Antlion quickly cycled through it's systems checked and hopped closer to the much smaller girl. It's grill glistened slightly with condensation from the engine's output.

"Aw, Antlion is so cute," Enkidu said to the machine quietly, "I've got good news about DSE. We get to go up against the new SOLDIER program! Isn't that wonderful?"

Antlion hovered around briefly, as if it patrolled the area.

"If we do well, we're one step closer to the dream."

Antlion continued about, though this time it elected to stomp about the research lab.

"I've heard lots about the SOLDIER program though, it could be tough. That's why I am hoping to upgrade your flight capabilities and adjust your tactical memory on the Seconds and Thirds you've already faced. Maybe some better armor, if I have the time. But, I can tell you're already up for it!"

The large machine stopped and swayed in place, as if practicing a pose of some kind.

Before Enkidu could even start her next sentence, the area was rocked with a massive explosion. The young woman could almost feel the force of the blast to her very core. Enkidu was knocked on her rear as the building fiercely shook from the explosion of power.

For a second, Enkidu thought that maybe her Antlion had exploded. Or that someone screwed up very badly over in the Scarlet Volatile Research Materials Center. After the initial shock, an alarm went off.

It was not a typical fire alarm. It was more like a security alarm.

"We're under attack?" Enkidu questioned incredulous.

A sudden burst of gunfire quickly answered her question.

"Antlion! Drones! Defensive posture, search and rescue, cooperate with any first responders. Go!" Enkidu ordered as she climbed to her feet.

The Antlion and it's drones deployed within seconds, leaving Enkidu alone in the now darkened room. Enkidu hurried over to the lab's main door and closed and locked it. She did the same to the second door, effectively sealing herself in. She then rushed over to her console and readied the drone monitors and microphone.


	2. Chapter Two: Machination

**D.M.W.**

A/N: I forgot to include a disclaimer for the song lyrics I used in the first chapter. I don't own Good Morning Starshine, but like VII, it makes me happy.

VII is getting a remake. Real talk, I _knew_ an announcement about VII (its twentieth anniversary is coming up!) and I based DSE in part on E3. Heavily changed this chapter due to recent events. Unfortunately, this chapter focuses more on Enkidu than other characters.

 **Also, please extend your thoughts and prayers to the grieving community of Charleston, South Carolina.**

Chapter Two: Machination

Enkidu rushed to bring up the live camera systems on the drones, as her seven machines raced for the nearest exit to the outdoors. The six drones were much faster and mobile than the heavy Antlion machine, however they were far more vulnerable and unable to do much beyond reconnaissance.

One by one, five of the cameras came online with ease, though with slight static and limited sound. The sixth was snowy, but she could still make out the livestream. Within seconds, the drones were through the main exit of the Tuesti Robotics Building to the main courtyard of the massive Shin-Ra Science University.

The Antlion entered the dusky, hazy courtyard from the southern most building, the Tuesti Robotics Building. The main courtyard was a large expanse of fertile yards and hedges, fountains, and statues dedicated to the entire Shin-Ra Science Department. It served largely as a traffic hub, as the expanse was ringed with the major halls, labs, and workshops of the main campus of the university.

Beyond the ring of the university, were twin student dorms and housing for the faculty, professors, and lab assistants. A little west of the university, on the very edge of the plate, sat the Sector 0 Mako Reactor. And far south of the main campus, lied the rest of Sector 0.

As for the campus itself, proceeding clockwise from the rectangular Tuesti Robotics building was;

the sprawling Scarlet Volatile Materials Research Center, followed by the Hollander Biological Sciences Labs, the Crescent World Histories and Mythologies Archives, the Hojo Humanity and Administrative Building, the massive, but rarely used Gast Memorial Lecture Hall (the northern most building of the entire university and practically positioned atop the very edge of the Sector 0 plate), the Bugenhagen Technical Research Building, and the largest building of them all, the Gast Life Sciences Building.

The first thing the drones picked up were a mess of creatures and Shin-Ra security members, flanked by the elite sweeper and head series.* The Hollander Biological Sciences Labs was the most secure facility on campus bar none. It contained all manner of beasts and monsters, particularly plant specimens such as razor weeds, cactuars, and marlboros. Their resilience was a great benefit to student experiments.

Indeed, there were four or five massive marlboro specimens flying out of a massive breach in the Hollander's western wall. They each took turns breathing their putrid stench down on anything that moved on the ground. Meanwhile, the razor weeds did their irritating magic draining ability, punctuated with their signature razor attacks.

The cactuars, on the other hand, had simply chosen to escape, scattering to the four winds.

The Shin-Ra security forces responded with heavy artillery fire, easily cutting down the numerous weeds. Most were careful to avoid the miasma of poison spread by the marlboros, but an unlucky few were bogged down by the weeds and were overtaken.

"A pity Carrot isn't here..." Enkidu muttered.

She paused and quickly typed in a command for Antlion. "Antlion, destroy the plant monsters."

Within seconds, the Antlion struck a massive blow to a group of clustered razor weeds, sending the offending flora flying back into Hollander and freeing two of the security force members. The Antlion gracefully rushed another trio of weeds, effectively mowing them down.

The sweeper series used the exact same tactics, though those robots had access to live artillery and worked in conjuction with the head models. The real benefit of robot forces were their immunity to ailments that would plague human forces and it showed. An additional plus was their capability could be reduced by up to 50% and the things were still capable of finishing off mid level opponents.

Their real failing however was vulnerability to magic and inability to adjust tactics. However, the Antlion, drones, and Doodle program could change that.

The Antlion, apparently satisfied with the dwindling number of weeds, began doing what it could against the flying marlboros. It jumped, gave itself a boost with the lift system, and smacked down one of the five hard. Enkidu couldn't help but remember that Antlion had no ammunition whatsoever, so essentially its dual guns were useless. It could still use its hydraulics to shift the weapon mounts, making a semi-effective blunt weapon with the guns though.

The grounded marlboro was then mobbed by three sweepers, two alert heads, and three Shin-ra security members. It was a grisly mess of tentacles and goo by the end.

Now that was a tactic Enkidu never programmed for Antlion. It seemed to be its basic blunt strike combined with it limited lift function. She was positive that lift had been disabled for use in battle. It simply consumed too much power for active use. In essence, Doodle was working as intended.

The rest of the marlboros were quickly overcome by suppressing fire from the longer ranged security forces. In due time, the monsters were pushed back into the Hollander building, out of the view of the drones. The entirety of the robotic security forces ringed the collapsed wall, while the humans presumably wrangled the surviving escaped monsters.

Enkidu quickly directed the drones to disperse around the blast areas. Containment was breached, but what happened?

She meticulously studied the six video streams. Four were dedicated to the east and west entrances, from which a steady stream of evacuated personnel and students. All wore white lab coats, coated in varying amounts of dust or dirt and some worryingly stained a deep red.

The other delivered aerial views of Hollander. She could see a number of security personnel and machinery amassing and heading to the Hollander building.

"I guess Shin-Ra Science University is going to need its Campus Communications Officer now," Enkidu almost groaned.

An hour of "I have no information", an hour of updates, and hour of clarification on the updates awaited her.

"Standby for manual mode," she typed quickly.

* * *

Enkidu rushed over to Hollander. The landscape was filled with smoke that stung her eyes and nose. The closer she got to the damaged building the louder it got. The area grew thick with security personnel, various mecha, and curious bystanders. It was almost deafening.

Enkidu almost shook her head at the breach of protocol. In an emergency situation, all students were supposed to evacuate the campus and shelter in place at dormitory or home or business. There was always the possibility of another event occurring.

Her eyes flitted about looking for some sign of authority or at the very least a familiar face to cling to. Instead, all she saw were faceless enforcers and gawking millstones.

"Enkidu! Enkidu!"

"Fuhito!" She spun and spun and no matter the direction, she couldn't find her friend in the chaos.

Finally a pair of strong hands grabbed her panicked form in the twilight hour. She pulled the young man into a bear hug and was somewhat surprised when he hugged her back. Fuhito was usually so reserved. Polite, but reserved.

Fuhito slowly released her and whispered, "I am glad you're alright."

"Me too," she couldn't help but give him a small smile.

"Have you heard anything?"

"No, I was in Tuesti when it happened," she responded quickly, "knocked me off my feet. You?"

"I was in Gast," Fuhito answered, "I didn't feel much of anything, but I heard it."

"I don't know what's going on," Enkidu declared, "but stay by me, okay. We need to disperse the crowd."

Enkidu grabbed Fuhito's hand, and hurried closer to Hollander. In any given crisis, leadership, whether granted or assumed by force, was a difference maker. Security had acted quickly with containment, but they dropped the ball with handling the rapidly growing crowd and the distinct lack of medical aid being summoned.

She could easily wrest control of the area with Antlion's microphone, with the drones acting as amplifiers. Within seconds, she saw the Antlion still in formation with the sweepers as giant metal barriers. Fuhito hesitated at the sight of the large machine, but Enkidu urged him on.

Antlion went into a kneeling position on sight, which Enkidu boarded with ease and offering a helping hand to her friend. Enkidu took a deep breath, grabbing the small microphone hidden near the simple controls.

"Attention!" she roared.

Her voice boomed across the campus with surprising ease. Relative calm washed over the milling student body. "This is your student council Public Communications Officer, Enkidu!"

She paused again as more bystanders began to pay attention to her. "I know many of you are scared, concerned, and hurt. However, I want to remind you that we have procedures for a reason! This could potentially be a series of events!"

Once more, she paused. "I urge you to return to your homes, for your own safety and the safety of others!"

A few millers turned to leave. Fuhito shook his head and shouted to her, "These people are scared, you can't just reason with them. Scare them!"

Enkidu grit her teeth. The obvious question was how, but the answer hit her fast as lightning.  
"If you people don't follow established protocol," she shouted, "this WILL go on your permanent record!"

That did the trick. Most of the student body began to disperse, though a few stayed. She flashed a fleeting smile Fuhito and turned to see the security forces in a flurry of activity. She turned to Fuhito who shrugged in response.

"What's going on?" Enkidu demanded.

"There's no need to panic!" A corporal shouted at her angrily. "Follow procedure and evacuate! No one has time to babysit."

"Can't argue that," Enkidu thought to herself, "but I can't just leave, I am responsible for acting as liaison between the student body and the university."

"I think they found something," Fuhito whispered to her in a hushed tone.

"You mean like..."

Fuhito nodded knowingly. "Its time to leave," he said firmly.

Enkidu wasn't sure what was going on, but she agreed with Fuhito. It was time to leave.

* * *

The next day, classes at Shin-Ra Science University were canceled. The university had been placed on lockdown shortly after Enkidu had escorted Fuhito home.

Enkidu spent most of the night well into the morning going back and forth between the university student council president and the university president on the phone. Mostly it the university president handing down talking points to spread among the students, which she in turn needed to give to the rest of the student council members.

And just as she preparing to wind down for the day, she heard a knock on the door of her dorm room. With a groan she wondered to the door and looked through the peephole to see a dark haired man, with slicked back hair, clad in a black suit.

"Yes," She greeted loudly.

"Miss Maria Robotnik," He greeted formally, "I am here on behalf of the official investigation of the events that happened on campus last night."

Something about the man told her his was not to be trifled with. Still she swung the door open with some amount of bravado and said, "Enkidu! I don't answer to that other name."

The man's eyes flickered briefly with amusement, but he entered the small dorm nonplussed by the statement. "Tseng of the Department of Administrative Research," he said evenly.

"Never heard of it. Can I see your badge?" Enkidu replied simply. "Your title is awfully specific, should I really be talking to you?"

The man quickly reached in his breast pocket to flash his credentials as requested. "As I am sure you're already aware of, there are some anomalies regarding the event. Its been decided that the responsibility of this investigation be given to my department."

Tseng was right. Between the reaction of the corporal the other night, the highly detailed talking points, and the involvement of this strange department, something was going on. Wouldn't this department Tseng belonged to be investigating employees of the company?

"So, the explosion of Hollander definitely wasn't an accident," she thought to herself quickly. "But the university has nothing of value. All the student projects are funded and supplied by Shin-Ra Electric Company. All the spending was handled the university's Treasury Department and all materials are distributed off campus at Shin-Ra headquarters by the Campus Public Security Division."

"Right," Enkidu said after a moment, still unsure. "What do you need?"

"Well, Miss Mar—Enkidu, I'd like to know what you saw and heard in regard to the event." The young man paused and added, "I am also told you deployed some sort of machine to scene. I'd like to see any data you recorded related to the event."

Enkidu hesitated. The handsome young man had chosen his words carefully.

"You want to see the data or destroy it?"

Tseng nodded and truthfully answered, "Both."

Enkidu fidgeted slightly. "Antlion is currently under lock and key at Tuesti. I don't feel entirely comfortable with you just activating it and going through my research. No offense."

Tseng nodded. "I am not offended. You've sunk many hours of your life into your project, its understandable. So long as you remain cooperative, I will be cooperative."

"Let's go," Enkidu stated. "I can tell you everything on the way to Tuesti."


End file.
